Sugar tax is not planned in Lithuania for now, as the content of sugar in products should be reduced through agreements with manufacturers, Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga says.

Agreements with some food producers on voluntary reduction of the contents of sugar, salt and fat in their products were signed at the ministry on Thursday. The minister expressed hope that increasingly more producers would join the agreement in the future.

"If we do well, there is no sense or need to introduce any new taxes," Veryga told journalists after the signing ceremony.

"The goal of the taxes, which were not proposed by the government but were in advance discussed in the society, was in essence what we did with today's agreements – lower content of sugar in food products. The countries that went this way had the same objective – producers that did not want to raise prices for their products reduced the content of sugar. I am glad that we in Lithuania can demonstrate a different way of solving this – an agreement with producers to do the same without any taxes," the minister told BNS.